Be creative! : Enhancing soft skills while performing
BACKGROUND
The various arts and cultural venues remain difficult to access for people in difficulty, despite opening or pricing policies.
Support for the most vulnerable people is needed well upstream and from the places they frequent in their pathway to integration.
Steps need to be taken with them to create or re-establish the desire to take part in cultural activities.
Cultural expression is essential for the development of creative skills, which can be transferred to a variety of professional contexts.
A deep understanding of one's own culture and a sense of identity can form the basis of a respectful and open attitude towards the diversity of cultural expression. A positive attitude also includes creativity, a willingness to develop one's aesthetic sense through the personal practice of artistic expression and participation in cultural life.
Cultural awareness and the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions in a variety of forms, including music, the performing arts, literature and the visual arts, can be taught through the development of soft skills. Because work is an eminently social activity, soft skills are now widely sought after by recruiters: more qualitative and subjective, these skills encompass a multitude of abilities, including creativity, the ability to adapt quickly to new situations, to solve problems, to persevere in one's commitments or to lead a team...
The combination of the above statements forms the context and objectives of the Be creative! project.
THE PROJECT
Be creative! project aims to provide opportunities for everyone to acquire and develop social skills in order to promote employability, socio-educational and personal development, and participation in civic and social life.
All the activities planned, carried out and successfully completed help to tackle social and economic integration through the development of Transversal Skills and Competencies (TSC) using Art and Culture.
The project is aimed at :
- vulnerable groups,
- educators/trainers/training professionals.
MAIN RESULTS OF THE PROJECT
Be creative! partnership worked to develop the following outcomes :
à Training kit
The kit consists of a training programme and a set of practical resources, including teaching methods and approaches to equip educators for their teaching activities in formal, non-formal and informal contexts.
The aim is to respond to the challenges of integration and inclusion through Art and Culture in educational provision. It includes content tailored to the specific needs of the project's users and beneficiaries.
à Trainer's manual
The manual presents basic concepts, definitions and innovative methodological approaches to the use of Art and Culture in the classroom and in non-formal and informal learning environments.
Among other things, it discusses how the training kit and its resources can be used effectively to help implement a comprehensive training programme.
à Training courses for learners
The training pathway method aims to help educators working with vulnerable adults to define a pathway to achieve their objectives.
The method is based on the 16 TSC identified in the Be Creative! project, which aim to develop cross-disciplinary skills, and on four themes: social inclusion, finding a job, keeping a job, and access to education and training.
To showcase the progress made by learners, they are given the opportunity to create an e-portfolio using "Google sites", where they can store documents illustrating their skills, their career path, their training, etc. To help with creation, the partnership has developed a simple video tutorial.
à E-learning platform
Be Creative! e-platform is an open learning system in which project materials are downloaded and made available free of charge.
It is aimed at both learners and VET professionals in order to raise their awareness and develop their knowledge of the various elements linked to the use of cultural activities in training processes, through interactive learning elements.
More information on the project at:
